If you're a Real Estate Agent, there is a good chance you aren't taking advantage of Facebook ads to generate leads for your listings. The majority of Agents I interact with on a daily basis haven't attempted to use Facebook ads because they don't feel they have the time, or haven't been able to do it in a way that generates any real value. To top it off, the vast majority of them aren't even aware that advertising on Instagram is now an option until I bring it up.

Ringtrail is a powerful new tool created specifically to help Real Estate Agents succeed with Facebook & Instagram advertising. Here are 4 reasons that you should give it a shot!

1. Ringtrail gives you a free website for your property.

The first step in getting started with Ringtrail is to create a simple, 1 page for the property that you want to advertise. Ringtrail sends the people who click on your ads to this website to learn more about your property. The whole process is truly "plug and play." As long as you have good (preferably awesome,) photographs of your property, you can have this website up and running in minutes.

The websites are designed strictly to generate leads for your property, so they're very straight-forward and to the point. Granted, these property websites are not the best out there, you can definitely create a more unique website with more functionality by using Squarespace or Wordpress. However the websites are responsive (mobile & tablet friendly,) aesthetically pleasing, and I doubt that I could make a property website faster on one of the aforementioned platforms.

2. Ringtrail creates the ads for you.

If "I don't have the time," is your excuse to not advertise your properties on Facebook, you no longer have an excuse. The majority of setup time for Facebook ads is spent writing creating different variations the advertisements. Ringtrail does this work for you and creates your advertisements based on the pictures and details you provide in the property website you've built.

3. Ringtrail choses who to target with your ads.

Another complaint I often hear regarding Facebook ads is that, as with any pay-per-click advertising, you can waste a lot of money if you target your ads to the wrong people. Ringtrail helps minimize that risk by setting up the ad-targeting for you. They take the location and price, and use their custom algorithms to send your ads to people who are most likely to be a match based on their income, what kind of car they drive, whether or not they're planning to move, etc.

4. The cost of running the ads starts at $39.

Usually when I think of "marketing automation," I think of platforms like Hubspot that force you to pay for a year of service up front and have a substantial cost associated with them. This is not the case with Ringtrail. Running the ads costs as little as $39 per week, and you don't have to commit to anymore than 1 week at a time.

What have you got to lose? The answer is $39.

Disclaimer: This is not a full on endorsement of the Ringtrail platform.

Like any marketing channel, my advice would be to give it a shot and see if you can make it work for you. If you get good results, take it further!

Here are a few things that would make me wary of diving into the program headfirst and swearing off the standard Facebook advertising interface:

There is no option for advertising land.

As of now, Ringtrail only gives you the option of advertising a house or a condo. If you or your brokerage tend to represent a lot of house-lots, this platform might not be for you.

You could know your target audience better than Ringtrail.

While the idea of letting Ringtrail eliminate the time it would take you to set up proper targeting is tempting, it might not be your best option. If you've been doing business in the same community for 25 years and you generally list similar properties in the same price range, you may be able to target your audience better than Ringtrail's algorithms can.

No videos.

Videos, drone videos in particular, are currently praised as the hottest thing to ever happen to real estate marketing (granted, until the past 24 months they haven't had much competition.) If your firm has already taken advantage of this innovation and is making videos for all of your listings, you may want to stick with creating Facebook ads yourself. The Ringtrail platform doesn't currently support videos on their property websites.

Side-note: If you are taking videos of your properties and you're not using the videos to advertise on Facebook, you are wasting one of the best opportunities to get the videos seen.

And there you have it! Go to www.Ringtrail.com, give it a shot and see if it is for you. Feel free to comment regarding your experience!